A recent study from the University of London found that children who read for pleasure are likely to do significantly better in school than their peers. Children who read for pleasure made more progress in math, vocabulary, and spelling than those who rarely read.

Are these results surprising? Not to educators and librarians. It is the reason for our close partnership with Kalamazoo Public Schools.

For the third year, all KPS first graders will visit a KPL location twice in the fall and then again in the spring. Northglade first graders visited the Powell Branch in the Douglass Community Center to launch this year’s visits. Each student received a KPL card, checked out a book, and heard a story. In a few weeks they will visit again to learn how to return a book and select another one. In the spring, we will celebrate a year of first grade reading and promote summer reading games.

For the first time, there are two new components to our partnership with KPS. All KPS students will be eligible for a one year KPL library card that will permit them to check out three books at a time. With full information from their parent or guardian, it can be converted to a full, unlimited access KPL card.

Second is our evolving very close relationship with Northglade. We are undertaking a two year project to determine if a close relationship between a school and a public library improves student achievement. We think it will! We expect every student and staff in the school will have and use their KPL card, that there will be visits back and forth with Powell Branch staff frequently at Northglade and students of various grades visiting the branch, and a library presence at all Northglade events.

As Walter Dean Myers, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and recent visitor to KPL says, “reading is not optional” if you are going to be successful in school and life. We are working on that with our partners at KPS.

We’ll report periodically on our progress.

Book

“Reading Is Not Optional”

walter-dean-myers-button-160

/kids/

Posted by Ann Rohrbaugh at 10/02/2013 09:13:35 AM |

i agree with the author, reading is not optional, student have to read anything about education, and its very important forstudent.Posted by: bisnis rumahan ( Email ) at 5/21/2014 5:23 AM